Damn Charlotte! Back at it with the Full Fat Lashes

Welcome back to the blog! Today's article is kind of a target audience article as it is the first one inaugurating the Beauty Section I have recently added to my blog (among others). And for this first article, I thought about reviewing a product I have been using for a while now and which has come across as my holygrail of mascara. Now I can be very picky when it comes to make up (Sephora reps know about this...) so when I say it is the holygrail of mascara it is not an understatement.

Throwback to an impromptu study abroad summer 2014 in London (somewhat prepared but mostly decided on a whim). I had been following few beauty bloggers from the UK and one of them seemed to be obsessed with Charlotte Tilbury. So of course, on my bucket list of things to do upon arriving to London was to figure out what the hype about that brand was by trying one or a few products. So one day after class, I walked from my campus (on New Cavendish St) to the John Lewis store located on Oxford Street. Of course that day I wasn't sure I would find a Charlotte Tilbury counter but I was hoping at least to find somebody that could point me in the right direction. So I walked in and surprise! I saw a Charlotte Tilbury counter. I started looking around, trying to wrap my mind around the multitude of products on display and at the same time, convincing myself that I didn't need to buy everything because a) I didn't need to buy everything and b) I couldn't afford it.

A lady then approached me and asked me if I need help finding something. Obviously I didn't because hello?! I knew nothing about the brand back then. So instead of treating me like an idiot and rolling her eyes to the point of hurting her own self (like most people at makeup counters do here in the US...), she smiled and courteously started introducing me to the brand and the best sellers. She offered to makeup my eyes in order for me to try some of the products and that's when I was introduced for the first time to Charlotte Tilbury Full Fat Lashes mascara. When I saw my eyes and the way my lashes looked after only ONE coat I knew I had found the one. My lashes had never looked so full and luscious in all the years I had been using mascara. It was ridiculous!

The mascara comes into a beautiful night crimson glossy box, with the name of the product and the brand name written in gold. It looks fancy (which it should considering th fact that CT is a Luxury brand). You get 8 mL of product that claims the ability to :

• provide some amount of curling to the lashes via the 5-grooved brush deposits the optimal line of mascara along the lash line, pushing your lashes up and out.
• separate your lashes thanks to a brush designed with fine-tipped bristles that catch every lash, no matter how short or fine, coating them in black brilliance.
• give you lashes volume thanks to the glossy black formula of the mascara that creates full-on, voluptuous, outrageous lashes that don’t drop onto your cheeks.
• lengthen you lashes as the maximum bristle count covers every lash to the very tip, to create the perfect flutter.
• give you dramatic lashes: the 5-STAR brush creates a 3-dimensional flutter. Good bye spider lash and hello feather lash – lashes are finely separated, creating that “false lash” multi-layer effect.

Now one thing you have to know is that I have always had curly and short eyelashes, not much of them but this mascara helped me make the best out of them. It doesn't do much in terms of curl and drama. I would say it is gives more of a natural look with more defined eyes as it separates and lengthens the eyelashes thus making your eyes more open. I have tested it, loved it and worn it for 2 years now. This mascara  retails for $29 on Charlotte Tilbury's website as well as on Nordstrom for the same price.

Two things that are worth keeping in mind before buying this product are a) it is a bit on the pricy side for a mascara and b) it is NOT waterproof so it might smudge BUT! to my opinion it is a great mascara overall and a great addition to a makeup bag.

If you have tried it let me know what you think about it :)

Until next time...
xo

I am a woman and I can: Celebrating International Women's Day

March 8th was international women day and I couldn’t help but think how the progress that has been made when it comes to women right. This train of thoughts was sparked well before that day, more specifically the weekend leading to the international women’s day week, when laying down on my couch I was watching the suffragette. This movie is a British historical period drama that narrates the fight of the first feminism group, Suffragettes (hence the name of the movie) requesting a right to exercise their voting power just as men.

This movement  started in 1897 with the foundation of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage with led by Millicent Fawcett. Like any good leader, Millicent Fawcett believed in peaceful protest and in the power of words to make changes happen and obtain the right to vote she and many other women believe they deserved. Although her approach was noble, it made other women grow angry and frustrated as progress too long to be noticed. So Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia founded in 1903 the Women’s Social and Political Union which later became better known as The Suffragettes.

Unlike Millicent, the Suffragettes were ready to use any means to make their voices heard as long as in the long rung they obtained what they were fighting for: Voting rights. What started as a peaceful movement rapidly turned a radical movement and the violence used by the authorities certainly did not make them back down. In 1912, the suffragette started using extreme measures to force change: they started burning churches, attacking politicians and bombing their houses. One of the suffragettes, Emily Wilding Davidson, threw herself under King Ander’s Horse on June 9th 1913 as a desperate act to get the world's attention, thus becoming the first Suffragette martyr. It is only in 1918 that the Representation of the People Act was passed by the British Parliament, granting women limited suffrage (only women over 30 could vote) and ten years later (1928) the right to vote on an equal basis with men.

Protests like this one to give women more rights were organized around the world by leaders and feminists who did not shy away when facing obstacles. They sacrificed everything they had and sometimes their lives so that the upcoming generations could have what they didn’t have. But even with that,  there are still some disturbing facts that are worth mentioning and here are a few of them:

• Every 90 seconds, a woman dies during pregnancy or childbirth. Most of these deaths are preventable, but due to gender-based discrimination many women are not given the proper education or care they need.

• As many as 1 in 4 women experience physical or sexual violence during pregnancy.

• Women make up 80% of all refugees and displaced people. Instruments of genocide such as sexual violence and rape are often directed at women and girls.

• Women account for 70% of the population living in absolute poverty (on less than $1.00 a day).

• Over 60 million girls worldwide are child brides, married before the age of 18.

• 603 million women live in countries where domestic violence is not yet considered a crime.

Let’s not also forget about the girls who aren’t in school because of gender discrimination; those who don’t have access to the most basic things such as hygienic pads when they have their periods and are excluded from their communities during their "week of shame". Let’s not forget about the pay gap which does not seem to get any smaller despite all the efforts being made. Let’s also not forget about sexual harassment at work and all those things that the world doesn’t seem to see.

 

We have come a long way and at the light of the progress that has been made, I can't help but take pride in being a woman who is educated, part of a field largely dominated by men, who can training BJJ, who just beat the odds that some of my female peers did not. And if nothing else motivates me in life, this will always motivate me and make me want to be the best and give my best because I am at a place where not many can say they are at and I am blessed. And if you are a woman you should feel that way too because no matter where each one of us stand in life, we have had to face hurdles and fight battles that brought us where we are and made us who we are today and we have come a long way.

This article is an acknowledgement and celebration of  the people who before us traced a better route so that we could walk on it, remembering all that has been done. Let’s make sure that we don’t just stop and let it be it but instead, let's keep making that route better too for future generations and pass on that legacy. Let’s allow our deeds to change the world and build upon the strong foundations that have already been laid out for us in such as way that we can provide more opportunities for women to become accomplished leaders, scientists, artists or whatever they want to be because they have the right to, but mostly because they can afford it.

Friday Talk: The transition

I thought about what had happened to me so far and how the hardest I was trying to make things go in the direction I wanted them to, the more they drifted away… And I thought maybe it’s not about what I want… Maybe it’s about what I needed at the moment. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and if the things I was holding so close to my heart and that I wanted were not happening despite all the efforts I was doing then maybe it wasn’t the right time or these things were just not meant for me. Maybe it was a time for me to learn to let go of how I wanted life to go and enjoy the way it was at the moment and learn the lessons I had to learn. Maybe it was time for me to learn how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Maybe it was a time to for me to learn to embrace the transition and get accustomed to the unknown and to all the possibility it was bringing to me.

Being fresh out of college and entering adulthood is a hard transition, a place where most of us get stuck because a) we don’t have the answers we are looking for, b) we don’t know how adulting works and c) we realize that all we have been taught in class cannot be used in real life when it comes to answering normal questions a 20 something young adult is asking himself/herself. Adulting is hard, it takes away the red carpet you have been walking on in college – while you are still standing on it- and makes you land on the cold, hard ground on your butt (if you’re lucky enough) or on your head. My fall was on my head… Still hurts from time to time when I think about the dreams I had and where I stand in life right now but like I always say everything happens for a reason. 

But just because I landed on my head and that my life looks nothing like what I thought it would when I graduated from college doesn’t meant that my dreams are dead… Not at all… To quote Paul Angone , I am growing them and one day, when it is time, they will blossom. I know it sucks to settle for something you didn’t sign up for just because you have obligations and have to go through life; but believe that out of that something that sucks, life is trying to teach you valuable lessons that will serve you in growing those dreams of yours. So don’t give up just yet. Let life happen, take note, navigate through the shallow waters to the best of your abilities and keep growing those dreams, water them, feed them, keep the passion alive and one day they will blossom and you will be thanking yourself for not giving up.